With this latitude of interpretation we understand the fixth petition in the Lord's Prayer, "Lead us not into temptation;" agreeably to a fcriptural form of fpeech, which represents a perfon as doing that, which he fuffers to be done; and according to a reading taken by St. Cyprian from an old Latin copy, Suffer us not to be led into temptation. "For "what?" as hath been well demanded;" Doth “God lead man into temptation? God forbid!

for God is not the caufe of evil; but we "will call upon him, that, of his manifold "mercies, he may not fuffer us to be tempt"ed." So alfo with refpect to "them, that "are loft," thofe abandoned men, " in whom "the God of this world" (that is, as St. Chryfoftom expounds it, not the Devil, but the good God himself) "hath blinded the minds "of them which believe notd." "How then "did God blind them ?" faith St. Chryfoftom: "not working in them to that effect; away "with the thought; but by permiffion and "conceffion," for fo, remarks the learned Bar

* Τι γαρ ; Θεος εισάγει ανθρωπον εις πειρασμον ; μη γενοιτο ου γαρ αίτιος των κακων ὁ Θεός· αλλα παρακαλεσομεν αυτον, ἵνα τοις πολλοις αυτου οικτιρμοίς μη εαση ἡμας πειρασθηναι. See Taylor's Life of Chrift, part ii. fect. xii.

d 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4.

• Πως ουν ετυφλωσεν ; ουκ ενεργησας εις τουτο, απαγε αλλ' apeis naι ourxwgnoas. Chryf. in 2 Cor. iv. 4. Hom. viii. c. 2. Op. tom. x. p. 494. ed. Par. 1732.

row, who cites the comment, the Scripture is wont to fpeak. So again with respect to the declaration, that God "hardeneth whom he "will"." But how doth he harden them? furely not by an irrefiftible influence from above, as from the literal fenfe of the words might at first be imagined; but by suffering obftinate finners to follow the bent of their own perverfe difpofitions; by fuffering them, as it is elsewhere faid, to" harden their own "hearts"." In the fame manner that God commands the Prophet to "fhut the eyes" of thofe, whom two Apoftles, St. Matthew and St. Paul, or rather whom our Saviour and St. Paul, defcribe as "clofing their own eyes;" and that he is related in another place to have "moved David" to commit a crime, which he permitted him to commit in compliance with the provocation of Satank. Whereas," obferves Melancthon, "from the fayings, I will "harden the heart of Pharoah, and whom "he will be hardeneth, the unlearned argue "that God is the efficient cause of fin; to this "and the like phrafes we muft anfwer, It is "most certain, that verbs active according to "the Hebrew idiom often fignify permiffion,

Barrow's Works, vol. iii. p. 339.

Rom. ix. 18.

Exod. viii. 32.

1 Compare If. vi. 10. Matt. xiii. 15. and Acts xxviii. 27. Compare 2 Sam. xxiv. 1. and 1 Chron. xxi. 1,

"not efficiency: As, lead us not into tempta❝tion, that is, fuffer us not to be overcome "when we are tempted.'."

With the fame latitude of interpretation we understand the fourth petition in the Lord's Prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread :" amounting to no more than a petition, that God will enable us to procure our fuftenance, provided we duly exercise the faculties we enjoy. And thus, in a fcriptural fenfe, it is with all the gifts of God. He "giveth riches;" but it is "the diligent hand that maketh "rich" "he giveth wifdom;" but it is "the "man of understanding who hath it." he giveth faith and repentance, not by infusing them into the mind by an irresistible act of divine grace, but by fupplying us with means

1 Primum indurabo cor Pharaonis, hoc ita citatur, cum fit verbum activum, ut indocti ratiocinentur inde, Deum effe caufam efficientem peccati: ad hanc phrafin et fimiles refpondendum eft; Certiffimum eft, Ebraica phrafi verba activa fæpe fignificare permiflionem, non effectionem: Ut, ne nos inducas in tentationem, id eft, non finas nos opprimi, cum tentamur. Melanth. de Caufa Peccati. Opera, vol. ii. p. 238.

Poftea ait, quem vult, indurat: Ubi nota fit Ebræa phrafis, in qua verba activa fæpe permiffionem fignificant: indurat, id eft, finit effe durum, &c. Ejufd. in Epift. ad Rom. ix. vol. iv. p. 960.

Compare Ecclef. v. 19. with Prov. x. 4. and Ecclef. ii. 26. with Prov. x. 23. And fee Whitby's Difcourfes on the Five Points, p. 277.

and motives fufficient for their attainment. Nay, more in fcriptural phrafeology, God is often faid to do a thing, when he does that, which has a proper tendency to the effect, and is fufficient to produce it; although the effect may not be produced by reason of fome defect or neglect in us, in whom it should have been wrought. "I have purged thee," faith the Lord to Jerufalem, "but thou wast

"not purged "." "The goodness of God," faith St. Paul, "leadeth thofe to repentance, "who continue in the hardness and impeni

tency of their hearts." And fuch is the purport of thofe promifes to believers in feve ral parts of Scripture; not that the Lord will abfolutely keep them from falling; but that he will bestow on them that affiftance, which is neceffary for their fecurity, provided they be not wanting to themselves. "The Lord is faithful, who fhall ftablish you, and keep

you from evil P:""Being confident of this, "that he which hath begun a good work in

you will perform it until the day of Jefus "Chrift:" "Who fhall confirm you unto "the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jefus Christ':" and if there any other paffages of fimilar import, they

66

be

may be well explained by the comment of Grotius on the laft of the preceding, God will do, “quod fuarum eft partium," all that is requifite on his part, towards bringing you to happiness; if ye for your parts "continue in "the faith grounded and fettled, and be not "moved away from the hope of the Gofpel :"

Mistakes may often be avoided by fuch an allowance for the peculiar phrafeology of the Scriptures, and a discreet qualification of their plain, literal fenfe. The qualification indeed (I repeat it) ought to be made with discretion: but still I apprehend, that the foregoing instances will show its propriety; and that the following will prove the neglect of it to be productive of error. It was from inattention to this principle, that many of the early Chriftians, mifapprehending the warnings of Chrift and of his Apostles, imagined the day of judg ment to be at hand. It was a neglect of this principle, which gave birth to fome of the monstrous enormities of the firft Anabaptists. It is a neglect of this, which leads the Antinomian to reject the moral as well as the ritual law of Mofes, and to renounce the authority of even the Ten Commandments: which

• Col. i. 23.

Mofheim's Ecclef. Hift. cent. xvi. fect. iii. part ii. chap. 3.